On the ground, Mason Melby and Sam Sparks shared the duties with Melby rushing for 63 yards.

The pair was good for 164 all-purpose yards last week.

» UNC BEARS ON OFFENSE: This is expected to be a strength for the Bears, coming off an average of 384.5 yards per game last season.

The Bears will rely on redshirt sophomore quarterback Jacob Knipp, who has taken on a leadership role. He threw for 1,969 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. He was intercepted 10 times.

Redshirt sophomore Trae Riek is coming off a 796-yard season with seven touchdowns. Senior Darius Graham had 269 rushing yards last season.

Knipp can take his pick of solid receivers, led by senior Stephen Miller, who caught five touchdowns last season on his way to 439 receiving yards, averaging 39.9 per game. Alex Wesley will line up on the opposite side of Miller. He had two touchdown catches last season, then competed for the UNC track team and was the BSC’s 400-meter champion.

Riek is also a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield, recording 344 receiving yards last season to go with two touchdown catches. He was the team’s leading scorer last season with 54 points.

The Bears averaged 30 points per game last season.

» RMC BEARS ON DEFENSE: RMC yielded just 261 yards of offense to Montana State-Northern last week, including just 66 yards on the ground.

The defensive line trio of Seth Swandel, Chase Bertelson and Keenan Fagan combined for 15 tackles with Swandel also recording a sack.

» UNC BEARS ON DEFENSE: There’s no question that UNC’s defense will have to redeem itself against the run from a year ago when they surrendered an average of 227 yards per week to opponents.

Up front, UNC will call on senior Mikhail Dubose, who had 51 tackles last season.

Senior cornerback Thomas Singleton will be the Bears’ coach on the field, helping to direct a young defensive backfield. Singleton recorded 77 tackles last season. Senior linebacker Kyle Newsom also returns on defense after recording 77 tackles last season.

» RMC BEARS ON SPECIAL TEAMS: Dillon Johnson handles the punting chores after averaging 35.4 yards per punt last week.

Griff Amies is the kicker. He converted all of his extra-point kicks last week and was good on a 42-yard field goal.

» UNC BEARS ON SPECIAL TEAMS: This is another strength of the Bears, led by junior return specialists Ellis Onic II and Hakeem Deggs, who led the nation at various times last season and combined for four return touchdowns.

Kiefer Glau will handle the punting chores with senior Jamie Falloon listed as the starting kicker.

———–

Twitter poll

How do you think the UNC football team will fare this season? Follow us on Twitter to vote: @GTribSports

Rocky Mountain College's football team may as well have been incognito this week.

Well, at least it tried.

In a world where social media plays a big part of everybody who has a pulse, you can't hide.

There's an explanation for the Bears' — yes, both teams' mascots are the same — gamesmanship for this afternoon's kickoff at 2 against the University of Northern Colorado at Nottingham Field.

They are an NAIA team from Billings, Mont.

NAIA rules don't require that teams have a film exchange, thus Earnest Collins Jr. and his squad has had one less element to gauge this afternoon's opponent.

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Obviously, the less UNC's Bears know, the better if you're Rocky Mountain College coach Jason Petrino.

He came to the small school after serving on the staff at the University of South Dakota under then head coach Joe Glenn.

Coincidentally, Glenn's 1996 and 1997 UNC NCAA Division II national championship teams will be honored at halftime this afternoon.

» A victory for the NAIA Bears against the NCAA FCS Bears would be a feather in its cap.

» It would give the NAIA squad a big advantage to Petrino's tenure to start the season at 2-0.

On the flip side, UNC can ill afford to slip up this afternoon against a lesser opponent. It wouldn't bode well for a program that appeared to have turned the corner last season with its first winning record (6-5) in 12 seasons.

"We're not starting over here," UNC coach Earnest Collins Jr., said as the Bears began preseason drills three weeks ago. "We have enough players back who played a lot and enough who played some.

"We want to keep moving on how we finished up last season," Collins added.

If there's any advantage that Rocky Mountain College has it's that it has already played — a 31-21 victory over Montana State University-Northern, another NAIA team.

It was the first game under Petrino, who has even downplayed his arrival at RMC.

"There was rust on both sides," Petrino told the Billings Gazette. "It was far from perfect, but I was glad our guys were able to battle and come out with the win."

UNC redshirt sophomore tailback Trae Riek was the only UNC player to mention there was no film to study from this week, but as season openers go, UNC is focusing as much on itself as it is the opponent.

Collins, who is anything but a social media butterfly, tweeted "Excited to watch my squad COMPETE" on Friday.

Collins knows that his squad can't take RMC lightly.

In the past several years, the Bears have come out ahead with early-season victories over Houston Baptist and Western State Colorado University last season 42-34.

However, NCAA Division II Colorado State University-Pueblo came to Nottingham Field in 2013 and upset the Bears 41-36.

Collins is 2-3 in season openers as the Bears' head coach with both victories coming against NAIA Langston University and Western State.

In Collins' first season, the Bears lost 22-20 to Langston, the first of 11 straight losses.

Petrino also called last week's victory for his squad "a relief," something UNC hopes to experience.

Gametime

» WHO: Rocky Mountain College (Billings, Mont.) at The University of Northern Colorado

On the ground, Mason Melby and Sam Sparks shared the duties with Melby rushing for 63 yards.

The pair was good for 164 all-purpose yards last week.

» UNC BEARS ON OFFENSE: This is expected to be a strength for the Bears, coming off an average of 384.5 yards per game last season.

The Bears will rely on redshirt sophomore quarterback Jacob Knipp, who has taken on a leadership role. He threw for 1,969 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. He was intercepted 10 times.

Redshirt sophomore Trae Riek is coming off a 796-yard season with seven touchdowns. Senior Darius Graham had 269 rushing yards last season.

Knipp can take his pick of solid receivers, led by senior Stephen Miller, who caught five touchdowns last season on his way to 439 receiving yards, averaging 39.9 per game. Alex Wesley will line up on the opposite side of Miller. He had two touchdown catches last season, then competed for the UNC track team and was the BSC’s 400-meter champion.

Riek is also a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield, recording 344 receiving yards last season to go with two touchdown catches. He was the team’s leading scorer last season with 54 points.

The Bears averaged 30 points per game last season.

» RMC BEARS ON DEFENSE: RMC yielded just 261 yards of offense to Montana State-Northern last week, including just 66 yards on the ground.

The defensive line trio of Seth Swandel, Chase Bertelson and Keenan Fagan combined for 15 tackles with Swandel also recording a sack.

» UNC BEARS ON DEFENSE: There’s no question that UNC’s defense will have to redeem itself against the run from a year ago when they surrendered an average of 227 yards per week to opponents.

Up front, UNC will call on senior Mikhail Dubose, who had 51 tackles last season.

Senior cornerback Thomas Singleton will be the Bears’ coach on the field, helping to direct a young defensive backfield. Singleton recorded 77 tackles last season. Senior linebacker Kyle Newsom also returns on defense after recording 77 tackles last season.

» RMC BEARS ON SPECIAL TEAMS: Dillon Johnson handles the punting chores after averaging 35.4 yards per punt last week.

Griff Amies is the kicker. He converted all of his extra-point kicks last week and was good on a 42-yard field goal.

» UNC BEARS ON SPECIAL TEAMS: This is another strength of the Bears, led by junior return specialists Ellis Onic II and Hakeem Deggs, who led the nation at various times last season and combined for four return touchdowns.

Kiefer Glau will handle the punting chores with senior Jamie Falloon listed as the starting kicker.

———–

Twitter poll

How do you think the UNC football team will fare this season? Follow us on Twitter to vote: @GTribSports